It was December 11, 1990 when the first session of "prime minister's hour" took place in Parliament. At the historic first meeting, the then prime minister, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, had answered Charilaos Florakis about the German reparations.
According to article 128A of the Regulation "Questions to the Prime Minister", his obligation was to answer in the Parliament, every 15 days, at least two topical questions addressed to him. In the debate, which takes place in the Plenary of the Parliament, the Prime Minister and the member of parliament who has submitted the topical question take the floor, who develops it orally, within 2 minutes. The process favors the Prime Minister, since he has the last word. Of course, the presidents of the parliamentary groups can also submit the questions. If the subject of the current question is the exclusive responsibility of a minister, then the relevant minister can answer.
128A was repealed in November 1993, immediately after the elections in which PASOK emerged as the first party and took power. Andreas Papandreou was essentially unable to speak during the "prime minister's hour" as his health had deteriorated. Thus, the institution "froze" to be brought back by Kostas Simitis, who answered every Wednesday.
Overall, Kostas Simitis was the most typical, as he answered the most questions over the next few years, 71 to be exact.
In the period 1996 - 2000 he answered 49 questions, and in the period 2000 to 2004, to 22 questions respectively.
Next, K. Karamanlis , avoided "prime minister's hour" in his first term but answered 19 questions in his second. More specifically, in the period 2004-2007 he answered only 2 questions, while in the period 2007-2009 he answered 19.
Then G. Papandreou answered 17 questions in the period 2009 - 2011.
The prime minister of seven months, Lukas Papademos answered 3 questions between 2011 and 2012.
On the other hand, Antonis Samaras he is the only prime minister of the country who did not attend the "prime minister's hour" once.
Finally, Alexis Tsipras answered 11 questions in the 4.5 years he ruled as prime minister.
The contest between Mitsotakis and Tsipras on how many questions each has answered:
As we mentioned, the first question (12/12/90) was asked by the then president of the Coalition, Mr. Charilaos Florakis, regarding the Greek demands-reparations, after the unification of Germany. The issue of reparations was raised by Andreas Papandreou on November 27, 1990 in a discussion before the agenda, regarding the external and internal situation of the country.
It is characteristic that in 1990, in the first debate on reparations, it came a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Mitsotakis government had assumed power on April 11, 1990, from the Ecumenical government of Xenophon Zolotas. In the position of Foreign Minister was Antonis Samaras who resigned two years later, in April 1992.
Mr. Florakis said that he asked this question "because this case of war reparations has remained hermetically sealed for 40 years with various excuses" (Parliament minutes).
For his part, Mr. Mitsotakis answered:
"From a legal point of view, I categorically state that the requirements created by the second world war still exist in any case, at least for all other countries and for Greece, which did not sign the "2+4" treaty. Legally, we still we have that right.
Politically, what is happening with the German reparations:He asked, naturally, that our government be informed what is happening with the other states. And I have to tell you, the situation is still completely unclear. I will not mention countries by name, because the information we got is confidential. We asked them not to give them to the public.
My impression is that there are countries that will not claim compensation. It is likely that these countries will eventually include the Soviet Union, which has other kinds of understandings and transactions at this time with united Germany. There are countries which, in any case, will not budge on the matter now. And there are also countries that will possibly shake up the issue now.
What I want to inform the Parliament is that, within this legal framework created by the development, which resulted in the well-known "2+4" agreement and the signing of the Paris Charter recently, there is no scope for a multilateral approach to the problem .
However, since I stated that legally the right remains, without any doubt, a bilateral shake-up of the matter by an interested country is not excluded.
And at this point I want to make the following additions:Firstly, the compensation demands from Germany are not all the same and the same things do not apply to all countries. There are demands for compensation for the victims of the Nazis. These demands were met by Federal Germany in 1961, which gave the then agreed amount. They were not satisfied on the part of the German Democratic Republic, East Germany. Consequently, united Germany today has an obligation to cover the obligation that East Germany did not cover.
Likewise, the loan which Greece then necessarily paid in paper currency, in order to maintain the German occupation troops, has a special form, which I do not know if there are similar cases in other countries".
In addition, the prime minister at the time said:"Furthermore, I would like to inform you that from the German side I am not aware of a definitively clarified position. Of course, unofficially or semi-officially, if you like, it is said by officials that after about half a century some consider the subject obsolete. The subject may be obsolete, but legally it exists." Things that have at least changed until today, that is.
In April 1995, the Prefect of Viotias G. Stamoulis informed the Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou of his intention to file a lawsuit for compensation for the victims of Distomos. A. Papandreou turned on the "green light". This was followed by the introduction of the president of PASOK to Onassios.
On November 27 of the same year, Stamoulis filed the compensation lawsuit as a representative of 258 Distomites - relatives of victims and survivors.
We remind you that the last German "no" regarding the payment by Germany of war reparations and reparations was heard only in 2019 after the verbal communication of the Greek government on June 4, 2019, with which the Greek government invited the German government to negotiations, for the practical satisfaction of the specific claims.
And according to the conclusion of the report of the inter-party parliamentary committee on the claim of the German Debts to our country, Greece claims more than 300 billion euros. This amount concerns the housing loan, financial compensation of individuals, the Jewish community, cultural disasters and a number of other issues.
The Inter-Party Parliamentary Committee "For Claiming German Debts" was established by a unanimous decision of the Plenary of the Parliament, taken during the meeting of November 18, 2015, following the proposal of the President of the Parliament, Mr. Nikolaos Voutsis, from November 17, 2015, for the re-establishment of the Inter-Party Parliamentary Committee for the claim of the German debts.
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